Top 10: Gamification software

2024. LinkedIn wants to add gaming to its platform



LinkedIn, the social platform owned by Microsoft renowned for networking, professional development, and recruitment, boasting over 1 billion users, is venturing into gaming to enhance user engagement. Introducing a new gaming experience, LinkedIn aims to inject fun into its platform, foster deeper connections, and encourage meaningful conversations. Drawing inspiration from the viral success of puzzle games like Wordle, LinkedIn's initial forays into gaming include titles such as “Queens”, “Inference”, and “Crossclimb”. One intriguing aspect of this venture involves organizing player scores by workplaces, potentially ranking companies based on these scores, thus adding a competitive element to the professional networking arena.


2023. Salt Labs raises $10M to gamify contract work



Salt Labs, a rewards platform for hourly workers, has emerged from stealth with $10 million in pre-seed funding. The mission of Salt Labs is to enable hourly workers to own the long-term value of their work. Salt Labs believes that by modernizing the total rewards structure for frontline workers, companies can better align their long-term interests with those of their workers. At a high level, Salt — which will launch sometime in early spring, available to any worker — attempts to gamify work by allowing frontline workers to earn rewards for every hour worked. Lee compares it to a frequent flier program, only instead of earning miles for flying, workers earn a virtual currency called Salt for working.

2021. Play2Pay raises $13M to convert mobile user engagement into bill payment



Play2Pay, a startup that aims to blend gamification and payments in a creative manner, recently secured $13 million in a Series A funding round. Play2Pay was founded with the belief that prepaid mobile phone users should have an alternative method to pay for their mobile phone service, and that wireless carriers would adopt an ad-funded business model. The company now asserts its position as the world's first "ad-supported payment rail," seamlessly integrated into the payment platforms of major service providers and financial institutions. Additionally, it claims to be the sole company that directly converts user engagement into bill payment.


2021. Gamified corporate training startup Attensi raises $26M



Norwegian startup Attensi has secured $26 million in funding for its corporate training solutions. Attensi stands out by employing a gamified approach to training, immersing employees in 3D simulations of their specific workplace and work processes. In the corporate training market, Attensi faces competition from companies like GoSkills, Mindflash, SAP Litmos, and Skilljar. The company boasts an impressive 63% compound annual growth rate in annual recurring revenue. Notable clients of Attensi include Daimler Mercedes Benz, Circle K, Equinor, BCG, and ASDA.


2020. Sales readiness platform MindTickle raises $100M



MindTickle, a startup that has garnered significant recognition for its sales readiness platform, has successfully raised $100 million. MindTickle's platform is designed to enhance sales performance for numerous small and large businesses. Embracing the concept of gamification, the platform enables companies to efficiently train and upskill their sales teams at scale. It incorporates role-playing techniques to assist salespeople in refining their pitch and handling customer inquiries effectively. Furthermore, the platform provides measurable insights into revenue metrics, enabling salespeople to track their progress and receive feedback on their calls. By harnessing the power of machine learning, MindTickle delivers personalized remediation and reinforcement to sales teams, enhancing their overall performance.


2020. Kaizo raises $3M for its AI-based tools to improve customer service support teams



Customer service and the concept of gamifying it to motivate employees may not be at the forefront of people's minds currently. However, it holds significant relevance in our present situation as we respond to and adapt to living with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Dutch company Kaizo has successfully raised $3 million. Kaizo utilizes AI and gamification techniques to provide feedback on agents' work, offer suggestions for improvement, and equip them with tools to establish and work towards goals. The company's software is already being utilized by 500 companies, including Truecaller, SimpleSurance, Miro, CreditRepairCloud, Justpark, Festicket, and Nmbrs. These companies collectively employ "thousands" of customer support agents who benefit from a combination of free and paid tools that seamlessly integrate with established CRM software such as Salesforce, Zendesk, and others.


2016. Zoho Projects adds gamification layer



Zoho is introducing Gamescope, a gamification layer integrated across various products, starting with Zoho Projects. This exciting addition aims to transform mundane tasks into an engaging game for users. By completing tasks, closing tickets and deals, and resolving bugs, users can earn points, which are tracked in a scorecard. Similar to a basketball game, each game has a specific time frame. At the end of the game, individuals who accumulate the highest points are awarded trophies. Additionally, users can earn badges by achieving specific targets. The winners have the opportunity to proudly showcase their badges and trophies on their scorecard or individual profile pages, enabling them to share their accomplishments with others.


2015. Enterprise Gamification platform Playbasis gets $1.8M



Playbasis, the company providing gamification solutions for businesses and enterprises, has successfully concluded a Series A funding round, raising $1.85 million. Initially, Playbasis concentrated on implementing gamification strategies in the enterprise sector, drawing inspiration from popular consumer apps like Waze and Foursquare that utilize leaderboards, badges, and competitions to enhance user engagement. However, based on customer feedback and the evolving nature of the industry, Playbasis decided to broaden its scope and delve into other domains. One of their key focuses is the development of APIs and modules designed to empower app developers, game publishers, and creators with the ability to incentivize users through rewards and more. Additionally, Playbasis is actively working on dedicated software and services tailored for enterprises, employing cutting-edge technologies such as virtual reality to motivate and engage both staff and end customers.


2012. Does your company need Gamification?



Gamification is already one of the hottest trends on the IT market. Vendors are implementing game mechanics into their products and customers start thinking that the gamification - is a magic pill that will engage the employees and make them productive. Badgeville CEO, Chris Duggan, recently gave some helpful tips about the gamification. Badgeville - is one of the two business-gamification kings (the second - is Bunchball). Badgeville provides IT vendors the gamification platform, which allows them to quickly embed game mechanics into their products. For example, Badgeville's gamification engine works in Salesforce, Yammer, IBM Connections, Drupal, Jive and SharePoint. ***


2012. Freshdesk gamifies Customer Service


Gamification has made its way into the customer support space, which is beneficial as tech support agents often question their job satisfaction after dealing with difficult customers. The inclusion of game mechanics can provide additional motivation during such moments. One of the pioneers in implementing gamification in helpdesk solutions is Freshdesk. They have integrated traditional game mechanics into their platform, where agents are awarded points based on various factors such as ticket resolution time, first-call issue resolution, and customer satisfaction. These points can be tracked through internal leaderboards, allowing agents to progress through different levels, starting from "Support Newbie" and advancing to "Support Guru." It is interesting to note that Freshdesk, which has already gained significant popularity, was founded last year by Girish Mathrubootham, a former top manager at ManageEngine (a division of Zoho). Girish decided to leave his comfortable position at Zoho and create his own startup after reading a brief comment about Zendesk raising prices for its helpdesk service. You can read the full story here.


2012. Work.com - work becomes more interesting



The highly anticipated Dreamforce event has commenced, and we are now delving into the latest Salesforce product offerings. Firstly, the team at Box.net can breathe a sigh of relief, as it appears that ChatterBox is still in the midst of development and won't be released until sometime next year. However, another service, Work.com, is already up and running. Work.com is essentially a rebranded version of Rypple, a company that Salesforce acquired last year. It's Rypple, but with a sleek new domain. We have previously provided a comprehensive review of Rypple, which is a solution for gamifying human resource management and achieving business goals. Here's how it works: Executives establish goals for each team member, monitor their progress, and provide reviews and rewards such as "thank yous," badges, and gifts (e.g., Amazon gift certificates). As a result, a) employees have clear objectives, b) employees are engaged in an intriguing work-game, and c) the company achieves its goals, as employees' objectives align with those of the business. In addition to its appealing domain name, Salesforce has integrated Chatter into the service, allowing for the tracking and discussion of employee achievements within the enterprise social network.


2011. Talent Management and Gamification on the rise: Salesforce buys Rypple



Salesforce - is if not the trend-setter in the Enterprise, than it's certainly the indicator of most important trends in this sphere. The company had grown on the wave of CRM and SaaS, then came to the front edge of cloud platforms, mobile applications and social software. And now Salesforce wants to occupy two more hot areas - Talent Management and Gamification. The common goal of these technologies - is staff motivation and development. Crazy demand for talent management system has been proven by SuccessFactors, which has set several records in SaaS-implementation and recently was acquired by SAP. And we have already mentioned about Gamification potential. So, today Salesoforce has bought one of the most promising startups in these areas - Rypple (known as Zynga for Enterprise). ***


2011. Nitro for Salesforce - gamified CRM



We continue to monitor the gamification of business applications. And the first gamified CRM is ... Nitro for Salesforce. This system was presented at the recent Dreamforce 2011 conference and will launch later this month. It's interesting that Nitro for Salesforce is created not by some guys from garage, but by the gamification professionals at Bunchball. For several years, this company is developing games for various projects. Its clients include Warner Brothers, NBC, HP, Comcast, Playboy. However, so far the company developed game mechanics only for consumer projects, and now decided to try its technologies in business application. As it's clear from the title, Nitro for Salesforce - is an add-on for Salesforce CRM. ***


2011. Work gamification - the Next Big Thing


Do you want your company to use the latest, most effective business technologies? Or you are creating a business application and want to make your product the next big hit? Then you are probably watching the new IT trends. In recent years we saw such emerging trends as SaaS (software as a service), business virtualization (where staff can work remotely), the socialization of business apps, mobile access. What's next? Perhaps it will be the Gamification. From the title it's clear that Gamification - is turning something into a game. In our case - turning work into the game. Imagine how much $$$ this promise potentially contains? ***